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When I came across this video on social media, it hit me right in my geeky gamer feels!

This short film, called “Player Two“, was ostensibly based on a true story.

In response to a YouTube video titled “Can Video Games Be a Spiritual Experience?”, one commenter shared the story of how he had lost his father at a young age and reconnected with his ghost via a shared video game.

Here’s the video:

As a marketer and corporate communicator, I cannot help but note that this inadvertently serves as a great ad to the Microsoft Xbox. It’s a powerful, emotional story that does a great job humanizing the brand, video gaming, as well as the technology. Not a bad achievement in just under 2 minutes!

Now, Adweek has published an interview with John Wikstrom – the filmmaker behind “Player Two”. It’s interesting to note that Microsoft – the owner of Xbox – had nothing to do with the video.

This was making its rounds on social media – clearly, as a testament to the viral nature of project.

Suumo is the biggest real estate information agent in Japan. Suumo was looking to build brand leadership when its agency HAKUHODO Kettle Tokyo challenged the company to meet the needs of a very unusual customer – the hermit crab.

The initiative was a collaborative between Suumo and Tokyo University of Marine Science and Technology to develop the perfect house for hermit crabs; especially since suitable seashells for hermit crab use were dwindling in Japan due to environmental degradation. The resulting solution was not only effective for the brand (increased purchase intention for the brand to 120%), it was also a useful and impactful, environmentally-friendly solution.

The alignment to the brand proposition was perfect – hermit crabs are famous for being the “masters of living,” who keep seeking the comfortable houses throughout their entire lives. Suumo was then poised to provide new comfortable houses for some of the most challenging customers in the world – and even turn them into unwitting brand advocates.

A short version of the case study (in English) can be viewed here:

A more comprehensive video case study (in Japanese, with English subtitles) is available here:

I really love social experiment/guerilla activation campaigns. Given today’s noise and clutter, timely activation activities are often able to tap in to the zeitgeist of the day. From there, they join the conversation – and, if particularly successful, may even “hijack” the conversation in their favor.

This one by JetBlue is really cool – and comes at a time when the US is going into its presidential elections. 150 unsuspecting passengers were given the chance to win free round-trip airfare to one of 20 domestic or international destinations served by the carrier. But … they’d get those travel certificates (worth about $300 each) only if they could decide on a single destination by unanimous vote before their six-hour flight from Boston landed in Phoenix.

So, would they “Reach Across the Aisle” and compromise as needed? Check it out:

One of the more surprising findings from the 2016 Edelman Trust Barometer was the swing in trust towards business.

Despite the general population’s skepticism of business, findings indicated that the sector had the best opportunity to bridge the trust gap:

Overall, respondents view business (61 percent) as the institution most trusted to keep pace with rapid change, far more than they do government (41 percent) and NGOs (55 percent).

80 percent say that it’s the responsibility of business to lead to solve problems (comparatively, 59 percent believe that it is the role of government to regulate).

A decisive 80 percent believe business can both increase its profits while improving the economic and social conditions in the communities in which it operates.

Globally, business also received the largest uptick in trust (5 points to 53 percent) among the four institutions, while continuing to close the gap on NGOs (55 percent) as most trusted.

For the sixteenth consecutive year, technology (74 percent) remains the most trusted industry.

Among the issues cited as most critical for business to address are: access to education and training, access to healthcare, protecting and improving the environment, improving human and civil rights, income inequality, creating or maintaining a modern infrastructure, and reducing poverty.

Perhaps unsurprising to many, business is also significantly more trusted than government in 21 of 28 countries, with large gaps in countries such as South Africa (44 points), Mexico (44 points) and the U.S. (12 points).

This new found position of strength for the business sector has also recharged credibility of the CEO as a spokesperson:

Findings found increased positive public response to CEOs trying to realize the dual mandate of profit and societal benefit.

80 percent agree that CEOs should be personally visible in discussing societal issues

Yet, typically most CEOs believe that their duty is to focus on the operational and ﬁnancial aspects of the company when communicating. This year’s Barometer indicates that the focus of CEOs is misaligned with what the general population believes to be most important. For instance, most say that CEOs focus too much on short-term ﬁnancial results (67 percent) and lobbying (57 percent). Equally important, 49 percent say that they do not focus enough on job creation and 57 percent say they don’t focus enough on positive long-term impact.

So, CEOs cannot just focus on operational and financial narratives – alone, they are insuﬃcient for fostering connection and building trust.

In a world where inﬂuence has moved to the mass, making the human connection through the story of personal experience and shared struggle is more important than ever. Almost eight in 10 say that hearing information about personal values is important to building trust in a leader. Just as important is hearing about the obstacles a CEO has overcome, their personal success story, and how their education has shaped them.